I could, if I craned my neck, see the accident. A truck had jacknifed, blocking the road in both directions. All four lanes. “We’re definitely stuck.”

Kara considered. “I can go back and take another route.”

“If we do that I’m sure we’ll go past her.” I hopped off the bike. The cop glared at me.

“It’s an emergency,” I told him. “And this isn’t the freeway.” It wasn’t a road it was actually illegal to walk on. Just one it would be stupid to walk on if the traffic wasn’t stationary.

“Well…be careful.”

It put me on my own. True, Kara could abandon the bike, but if she did so in front of that cop, it would make things look even stranger.

I walked along the shoulder, past the cop car, wishing even more for an in on Valkyrie Net. Or something like it. I had my cell phone, of course, but Thruor and Mike wouldn’t be in a position to answer it until they got stuck in this – if Kara hadn’t sent them another way – and I realized too late that I didn’t have Kara’s number.

The truck had spilled some of its load onto the street. Boxes of teddy bears, of all things. Well, at least it wasn’t live animals, I thought, as I picked my way past. They had the driver out of the cab, paramedics checking on him, but he clearly wasn’t badly hurt. The ambulance was just parked there.

Moving the truck was going to be the hard part. It was pretty much wedged. I was glad it wasn’t my worry.

On the other side was an unmarked van that had also flipped. If anyone had been in it, they were long gone.

I checked inside it, but no, there was nothing in there. Nothing and noone.

Whoever was in it had probably caused the accident then done a bunk. I was careful not to touch anything, then looked around. If I was running from here, where would I go?

Both sides of the street had banks and then those noise walls, but only one of the walls had a gate in it. I ran up the bank and pushed on the gate.

It opened easily and I was through into a residential street. There was no other way for them to have gone.

And I knew with everything that was in me that Kanesha was with them. Maybe she’d even caused the wreck. Why had they been coming back north?

Who knew. Maybe they’d thought they’d gone too far and I couldn’t find them. Either way?

Either way I’d found them now and I wasn’t going to let them get away. Even if I did have to chase them down on my own.